Sunday, October 28, 2012

Pope advocates armed resistance against the EU

Today is the 1700th anniversary of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, at which location history tells us (namely Eusebius) that Constantine received a divine vision of Chi-Rho, which blessed his victory over the Western Roman Empire and led to his conversion to Christianity. Had Constantine lost, it is not likely that Latin Christianity would have become the dominant religion in Europe: there would have been no Holy Roman Empire, no Christendom and no Latin Church. It is unlikely, therefore, that the Church in Rome would have become corrupt, thereby negating the need for the Reformation, thereby saving His Grace from the flames.

Ah, the butterfly effect..

Something of Constantine's religio-political methodology subsists still in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Under 'The Duties of Citizens' (2243) we learn:

Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate, unless all the following conditions are met: 1) there is certain, grave, and prolonged violation of fundamental rights; 2) all other means of redress have been exhausted; 3) such resistance will not provoke worse disorders; 4) there is well-founded hope of success; and 5) it is impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution.

Insofar as the UK's membership of the EU is manifestly resulting in a hierarchy of rights which is increasingly seen to be antithetical to traditional notions of religious liberty and to the customs and mores of the nation; and observing that this violation is certain, grave and prolonged; and knowing that other means of redress (ie direct democacy) have been chronically denied to the people by all the main political parties; and asserting that other means of remedy have been exhausted; and being sure that the action is likely to have the support of the majority in the nation and so not provoke worse disorders; and being certain in the well-founded hope of success; and being convinced of the reasonable impossibility of imagining a better solution...

Indeed the EUHCR is a valuable body - just because some of our lawyers are grossly misusing it, does not deny its' usefulness....Whereas the EU is a supranational juggernaught, much in need of resistance.

Actually think you've got that the wrong way round - it's the Muslims who are the minority being attacked in Burma, by Buddhists. It's an easy switch to make, I guess: we don't tend to hear about Buddhist persecution very much in the West as it goes against the way in which it provides an easy example of "good religion" for the MSM and Stephen Fry (we see something similar with Quakers).

I gather that there are strains/sects/movements (sorry, don't know the proper word) of Buddhism that are more prone to persecution than others - but I really am not well-informed enough to comment in any great detail. I can tell you that Buddhist monks have been involved in persecution of other faiths - Christianity, but also Muslims, and Hindus - across Asia and the South Pacific. Some of that is involved with oppressive regimes - of which the Military Junta in Burma must surely be archetypical. I expect some circumspection is essential - it would be rather like hearing that the official Zimbabwe Anglican Church was involved in murder and deceit: strictly speaking true, but a very poor reflection of the realities on the ground. However, there are plenty of accounts of persecution by Buddhists in countries where there aren't military dictatorships.

There is no actual quote by Pope Benedict XVI saying anything about an "armed resistance agaisnt the EU". Only a quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church about just wars and rebellions.

Without a doubt if there is any leader in Europe with the moral backbone who can stand up against the EU it is the present Pope.

As far as Western European Roman Catholic Church history goes you have to take the good with the bad.

Without The Emperor Constantine the Medieval RC Catholic Church in England, which was destroyed by the Reformers 450 years ago along with almost 1,000 years of English RC culture, would have never evolved. This is the same Medieval Roman Catholic Church IN England who's architecture and rituals present day High Church Anglicans have slavishly copied since the Oxford Movement for over 160 years. Anglican "bishopettes" now wear a miter and a cope also worn by Medieval RC bishops. Why can't they wear the simple garb of a Bishop of the Church of England under Elizabeth I and her Protestant successors?

Without Constantine Gothic architecture would almost certainly never come to exist. We would not have the great cathedrals of Medieval Catholic England or France.There would have been no Italian Renaissance which gave us St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican and a smaller and inferior version of it built by the Anglicans 100 years later in London called St Paul's Cathedral.

The independent German websitewww.german-foreign-policy.comannounced the accession of the present Pope with the headline "Habemus Europam" . He and the late Ottoman Vonnegut Habsburg were closely associated in the Pan Europa Movement. So I think you may wait a long time for this sort of endorsement from the Holy See.If you Google "Beerdigung Ottoman von Habsburg" you can pick up video clips of the Imperial scale funeral of the late Otto last year with the Habsburg colours carried by the Guard Regiment of the Austrian Republic and a most impressive service in the Stephansdom, conducted by Cardinal Schoenborn with the singing ink of the Kaiserhymne "Gott erhalte".Immediately behind the honour guard in the procession were the banners of Pan Europa..

Constantine did what any pagan Emperor would do to preserve his authority and position he took Christianity 'on board' what he omitted to do was to reject paganism... he merely added Christianity to Paganism.It took the Reformers to attempt to unpick Christianity from its pagan bedfellow and many (HG included) paid for this attempt to restore Christianity with their lives.

For those dissafected Anglicans who would desire to flounce out of the Anglican Church and return to their Roman[pagan] roots they would do well to remember the long line of martyrs who gave their lives to restore Biblical truth to Christianity.

The children of John Calvin and John Knox in the USA, the Presbyterian and Congrationalist Churches, are doing stuff today which would make those two sourpusses do sit ups in their graves.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) passed a historic measure in 2011 allowing openly gay men and women in same-sex relationships to be ordained as clergy.

I have a suspicion it's as bad if not worse with the Chruch of Scotland today but I do not know this for certain.

If you have any idea what hell holes Calvin's Geneva and John Knox's Edinburgh were like 450 years ago with their morality police atcually snooping into the daily the lives of the people looking for "sin" and punishing them "acordingly" the concept that Presbyterians today would do the above is shocking news.

DHAKA: Bangladesh's High Court asked the government on Wednesday to explain why local officials failed to provide security to minority Buddhists whose homes, temples and businesses were attacked over a picture of a burned Quran posted on Facebook.

"A two-judge panel asked top bureaucrats of the Home Ministry and local administrators to reply within a week and ordered authorities to ensure safety in troubled areas of southern Bangladesh."

"Bangladesh has started rebuilding 19 Buddhist temples vandalised by Muslim mobs in violence triggered by anger over Facebook content that defamed the Koran, officials said ..."

"Buddhists, who make up less than one percent of Bangladesh's 153 million mostly Muslim population, are based mainly in the southeast near the border with Buddhist-majority Myanmar.Buddhist leaders said the two days of violence was on a scale unseen since Bangladesh broke free from Pakistan and declared independence in 1971.Police said thousands of Muslims had taken part in the riots and nearly 300 people have been arrested."

The trouble in Bangladesh seems to have been almost totally ignored by the British media.

Chaps, what the Buddhists are doing in the far east in response to the obvious Islamic threat is a subject that perhaps the Archbishop would give us the benefit of his wisdom in the near future. One is loathe to hijack a thread, such is this man’s respect for our honourable host...

John, that’s is it. That’s it exactly. The reformation far from dead is continuing today. By accepting every whim thrown at them, the protestant houses are heading to a state of reforming themselves out of existence. We see it in the the CoE now. It is only a matter a time before the rest of the protesters protest themselves out of religion and into that of a social club with candles.

"The Catholic Church is evil, is it? Makes you wonder why He founded it." Did He REALLY.."The Holy Roman Church will stand and the gates of hell shall not prevail?" Must have missed that bit! Or is some vague association with certain early church fathers all that this tenuous claim can be based upon?The letter to the Romans (All believers mind you) by St Paul states throughout its many chapters that most of your many centuries added nonsense is non scriptural and saves no one (apart from being a 'nice little earner') yet ye carry on regardless and even claim a mandate to do such nonsense and remain as you are. A petulant, disobedient church INDEED, that sees the splinter in a brothers eye yet missing the oak trunk poking out of its own!

Yours is a church in dire need of self examination and urgent repentance, as is the CofE, not a counter reformation to shore up the sinking castaway ship!Is there anything worse in something/one as self justifying/serving?

Must say, I always think it rather wonderful that Constantine found safety in York, where his troops declared him emperor (succeeding his father, who died there in AD306).

But what a list of achievements followed: from a Serbian lad who may or may not have been another Bastard! (He seems to have cared about his mother).

Really, some historical figures were wondrous. Bernard of Clairvaux evolved from it all, and I think he was right to recognise our perceptions as being the greater only because we see as "from the shoulders of giants."

After all, we might add to your 'never would have beens': Sunday; Christmas; the Basilica of SS Peter and Paul; The Lateran Palace; the Byzantine part of the Roman Empire and all that self-repeating Interlace; the Cult of the Cross, and Helena's relics thereof; The Nicene Creed (+developments of the Apostles'); Trier and Constantinople, as we would come to know them ---and so, I guess, even the literacy that the Eastern Empire preserved for us to pass further along. All that and more without an i-pod to hand.

Of course, Constantine moved his HQ to Trier, at one point, which may have kept those pesky Franks in their place for a bit. I agree it's a pity they aren't still in it. Sad it is-- that their latter-day relative doesn't spring from Constantine's heritage in terms of Freedom from Persecution, and Freedom to Worship.

"Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate, unless all the following conditions are met: 1) there is certain, grave, and prolonged violation of fundamental rights; 2) all other means of redress have been exhausted; 3) such resistance will not provoke worse disorders; 4) there is well-founded hope of success; and 5) it is impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution."

1 - How do you define what are fundamental rights - in fact, what rights? Determined by whom?2 - #3 is impossible to determine.3 - How can #4 stand if #'s 1 and 2 are true?4 - #5 - better than what? Decided by whom?

Let's not forget that the city the Emperor Constantine founded in 330 AD, Constantinople, fell to the armies of Islamic Jihad in 1453. The great church of Hagia Sophia/St Sophia was turned into a mosque (today it's a museum) and hundreds of other beautiful Byzantine churches in Constantinople and what was once the Byzantine Empire, today Turkey, are now mosques.

Modern Jihadists in the Middle East and the Muslim brotherhood since 1928 have a saying which has inspired them for over 500 years since Constantinople fell to Islam in 1453. First Jerusalem, then Constantinople, then Rome.

The 3rd largest mosque in Europe (it was the largest when built in 1995) is in Rome. Here is what helped inspire the Mosque in Rome to be built:

Before its construction, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, the custodian of the two most significant mosques in the world, namely those in Mecca and Medina, visited Rome and asked for a place to pray, his adviser had to inform him that Rome had no mosques other than those in rooms of embassies representing Muslim nations, upon which King Faisal reportedly uttered “This is impossible!”.

So the Muslim King of Saudi Arabia now has a mosque today to pray in when he visits Rome but the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Protestant and Orthodox Christian leaders can't built churches in his country. The home of Islam.

Yet the funny thing is that the most massive, industrial scale beastliness of man to man occurred in the twentieth century by regimes which did throw off (as you would see it) all the superstitions of religion .

Nazism was anti religious and believed itself "scientific" in a neo Darwinian way. Marxism believed also believed itself "scientific" and acting out of historical inevitability in the interests of the workers of the world and was (and is) quantitatively far more murderous.

Both were foreshadowed by the mass murders and convulsions inflicted by the French revolution, in the name of the "rights of Man" which also sprang out of what is paradoxically called "The Enlightenment".

Without excusing any of the beastliness which was committed in the name of religion, any observer is forced to admit that there was a massive increase of inhumanity on a hitherto unparalleled scale when thinkers threw off what they thought to be their shackles.

There are some that say thatIslam owes much to Catholicism.Mohammed quite obviously drew from Jewish and Catholic sources to give birth to Islam.One of Mohammads wives is reputed to have been Catholic and possibly other family members?.

Islam and Catholicism have a few points where they can come into agreement(possibly a future shaky union?)The reverence for 'Mary' is just one point.There are also other points of agreement between Catholics and Muslims[apparently]

DDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL IITO YOUNG MUSLIMS

MoroccoMonday, 19 August 1985

' Christians and Muslims, we have many things in common, as believers and as human beings. We live in the same world, marked by many signs of hope, but also by multiple signs of anguish. For us, Abraham is a very model of faith in God, of submission to his will and of confidence in his goodness. We believe in the same God, the one God, the living God, the God who created the world and brings his creatures to their perfection.(An extract from speech by John Paul 2)

Dr Cranmer.Are you suggesting that Mr Van Rumpuy (Rumpy Pumpy) to his UKIP opponent is in danger of being dragged out of the E.U parliament by officers of the Papal Inquisition & face trial as a heretic, as no better more peaceful solution exists?. ROFL!

It wasn't the corruption of the Roman Church that did for Your Grace, and as for the 'need for' the Reformation…

Well, many are the histories that seek to celebrate the birth of the Anglican Church and its role in the Protestant Reformation. What they gloss over, though, is the fact that when the deplorable old king met saucy young Anne Boleyn he was about as interested in Protestant reform as he was in jet-skiing (never one to keep it in his cod-piece – he had already been adulterously giving Anne's sister the royal g-forces). He fancied the girl, and who could blame him – she a comely twenty-six years old and he an already knackered forty-two.

Of course, it wasn't long before he tired of poor Anne, getting his henchman Cromwell to concoct charges of adultery, treason and incest against her. Three weeks after the great man had her head lopped off he overcame the extraordinary grief that must have beset him by marrying his latest crush Jane Seymour.

What a guy.

Of course it all picked up wonderfully a few years later, if only for a short while, under the rule of Bloody Marvellous Mary, as history fondly remembers her (sorry Your Grace, if this stirs up some rather warm memories).

And that's it really, the glittering arc of the Church of England to this present day – pragmatic, mercurial, ever obliging – and never knowingly exceeding the measure of its origin. As for the European Reformation – nuns in herring barrels. Says it all really.

It must be difficult to be a Puritan today. Especially those who still belong to one of the former Puritan Churches who are now on the side of Old Nick.

I always think of the Scots as a no nonsense and common sense people. The C of S and Scottish Episcopal Church better fasten their seat belts because a tsunami of liberalism is heading their way from the south.

The Scottish Episcopal Church under the previous Primus, Richard Holloway, wasa fount of liberalism. It also gave us Canon Kenyon Wright, secretary to the Scottish Constitutional Convention. So its ecclesial political climate is fairly right-on PC already. I believe that, since his retirement, Bishop Holloway has declared himself agnostic.

My late sister was a member and had a great deal of comfort from the Church's ministry but it does seem to be the sort of outfit which takes the exhortation to be "all things to all men" in a very elastic-sided manner - just like the C of E, only more so!

I referred your comments on the Pope's speech about Islam to the editor of the traditionalist Roman Catholic magazine, Christian Order, asking him whether the speech was correctly reported. Basically, I suppose, I was asking "Say it ain't so"

He sent me a long reply, which began "John Paul was a major offender in all this, scandalously kissing the Koran during an audience for Muslims at the Vatican and also asking in 2000 for St John the Baptist to protect Islam!I've mentioned these sorts of outrages many times over the years. None of it involves the doctrine of infallibility, which of course is very narrowly defined. But it shakes the confidence of the faithful to be sure. As do bishops and cardinals who follow suit....

I could write a very interesting response for the blog but really haven't the time. len's idea that Catholicism and Islam might come to a "shaky union" is hilarious....Christian Order magazine is running a 20 page feature article in the January 2013 edition around this issue titled "Continuity or Contradiction: should Catholics "respect" False Religions". It points out how the neo Modernist notion put about by postconciliar (i.e. after Vatican II) popes and other ecumaniacs about respecting false religions like Islam is utterly contrary to Catholic teaching from the time of the Apostles... (As in the past, I'll be including some graphic pieces on Islam... to underline the sort of demonic concoction that it transparently is),,,,"

In short, it's a bit like His Grace's present successor welcoming the introduction of Sharia law to the UK.

You can look up the magazine's editorials by Googling "Christian Order"and he recommends the article he wrote in January 2001 on the then Cardinal Ratzinger's release of "Dominus Jesus".

I am not a Roman Catholic and find that the forthright views of this Australian editor give a very different impression of the RC Church and its laity to the one held by most outsiders. Christian Order expresses a minority view and is, of course, detested by the English RC hierarchy, who are "liberals"like many C of E bishops.

BEIRUT — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday called on Christians and Muslims to forge a 'common front' against warfare, even as battles raged in neighboring Syria and the new U.N. peace envoy to that country conceded that the situation there was deteriorating.

"It is time for Muslims and Christians to come together so as to put an end to violence and war," Benedict, 85, told an enthusiastic youth gathering on the second day of his three-day visit to Lebanon(Los Angeles Times September 16 2012)

So it will appear for the' common good' for Catholics and Muslims to unite and this will appear(on the face of it) to be' a good thing').

But Muslims deny the Divinity of Christ and is 'Allah the Christian God?.

Catholicism & Islam: 'Ties That Bind'The title reflects the hope and prayers of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Rome has been tilling this "common ground" with Islam for decades, as evidenced by the 1994 Vatican publication,' Recognize the Spiritual Bonds Which Unite Us: 16 Years of Christian-Muslim Dialogue.'.

Compromise will kill Christianity look what Rome has done to it!and her 'little sister' the protestant church which started right(with the Reformation) but has been 'sold out' by her leadership!.

Len. Would be able to inform the Inspector of any prominent ‘Born Agains’ he can google. Your rather sad take on Christianity has inspired this man to consider you a one off loon. But he is prepared to be enlightened. There might be a whole tribe of loons...

Inspector, I am born again, but not really prominent unless you are in a very specialized area of engineering plastics. Also, I don't think I am (yet) a loon. But then again, I don't think that Islam and Rome are about to combine. I do believe, though, that you must be "born again" to enter the "kingdom of heaven", but I also concur that both of these phrases have been sadly misused over the years.Dear Inspector, are you born again?

Matt A. This business about being baptised into God’s church. You do realise that it was primarily part of a recruiting drive in the early years of Christianity. It is possible to be baptised as an infant into a Christian family. This is lost on Len.

That man is a pitiful example of a Christian. Christ came down to save humanity, not a select few. If you believe the latter as a born again, then yes, the Inspector views you all as odd balls. If you think otherwise, enlighten this man....

Born again, converted, saved, there are many different phrases used in the Bible to describe the same event.I do not believe that the Bible teaches that everyone will be saved, it teaches the exact opposite of that, the much hated doctrine of election. Jesus himself said "all that the Father gives him shall come to him", but then in the next breath he said "all who come to him will never be cast out", showing us that we should not worry our little heads about election, that is God's business alone. Your comment on baptism is interesting, we are instructed to "repent, believe, and be baptized", but I am not convinced the order is especially critical, so I totally accept your point on infant baptism, even if this is not my practice.I enjoy reading your posts, and I get the idea that you do trust in Jesus for salvation, so we are, technically, brothers (I hope).

I see that nowhere in The Gospel.We must be baptized and born again. And that when we are at an age of discernment.

Ref. Mark 16:16, John 3:3, Acts 8:38.

It is far easier to sprinkle than dunk. Rome practised Baptism by immersion well into the Twelfth Century.

Cardinal Gibbons makes a pertinent statement:

"For several centuries after the establishment of Christianity, baptism was usually conferred by immersion; but since the 12th Century the practice by sprinkling has prevailed in the Catholic Church, as the manner is attended with less inconvenience than baptism by immersion."So, convenience takes precedence over instruction?

You further wrote:

"Christ came down to save humanity, not a select few."

Well, I know you don't embrace the vile doctrine of predestination but are you now espousing Universalism?

Surely not, not you!

Touching on the Roman/Islam parallels:

Certainly the symbologies have a likeness.The histories do also.Bloody and intolerant.

What did Pope JP II get for trying to reach out to the Islamic world and ask them forgivenss for the Crusades (what did we do wrong?) and by kissing that Koran as a sign of "respect" of the hatred and violence it contains during a vist to Syria?

He was shot on May 13, 1961 by a Muslim Turk at St Peter's Square in the Vatican and narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in 1995 during his visit to a World Youth Day rally in the Philippines by Muslim extremists from Mindinao allied with al -Quaeda.

Matt A. You are a reasonable man, sir. You should consider benefiting this post more often. At the moment, the sole born again is bringing Christianity into disrepute. His loathing of the RCC is quite remarkable. As someone who tends to respects the Christian beliefs of others, although he will contribute an opinion if the conversation calls for it, the Inspector finds Len downright rude.

You get right the idea that the Inspector trusts in Jesus for salvation. Or at least, to be considered for it, or putting himself forward as a candidate, if you wish. To answer IanCad at the same time, one does not believe in Universalism. Neither does one believe that a thorough knowledge of the bible will do it either. Christ did not come about the wealthy educated elite of Judaism, but the likes of fishermen. So how does the peasant in the field who may not read or write come in ? It’s the spirit of Christianity that does it for this man, including the choice of taking it or leaving it. The spirit that should be renewed after each mass. Rather a grand feeling that ! Would you believe that is all that is required of us through worship. We leave the ins and outs of the dogma to the priests. After all, if you were ailing of body, you would consult a physician surely, not rely on your own symptoms book…

IanCad. You mention Rome as bloody and intolerant. If you appreciate history, you will realise that was the way things were done in the past. And it wasn’t just you, the others were like that too given a chance. Let’s have no mass apology of events past, like when those who let the side down and were shot in WWI as deserters / cowards received a pardon or whatever. For all the good it did them and their families, it actually cheapened the courageous sacrifice the majority of men made.

You said: "We leave the ins and outs of the dogma to the priests. After all, if you were ailing of body, you would consult a physician surely, not rely on your own symptoms book… "

I agree. Look at the chaos we see among the thousands of Protestant denominations, sects, and cults each claiming to know the truth in the Gospels. How can the truth remain pure if it's constantly being divided like an amoeba to suit the spiritual needs of new branches of that expanding amoeba?

It can't. That's why the original Protestant Churches are imploding today.

IanCad

When a Catholic says that he has been "born again," he refers to the transformation that God’s grace accomplished in him during baptism. Evangelical Protestants typically mean something quite different when they talk about being "born again."

For an Evangelical, becoming "born again" often happens like this: He goes to a crusade or a revival where a minister delivers a sermon telling him of his need to be "born again."

I find the whole Evangelical experience an emotional one which I can''t identify with. If it helps others come close to God that is fine but I choose the Catholic version when our sins are forgiven and we are transformed by God's grace at the moment of baptism.

Is it true Evangelicals can be baptised over and over during their lives at these emotional revival meetings?

The Catholic Churches allows only one baptism. So did the early Church.

That was exactly my experience of that sort of protestantism - everything depending on a self-referential, subjective experience of being saved. As a young man I was with a group of that sort - all very good, serious people but the overwhelming experience of "being saved" passed me by.

It was many years later when I accepted that Christianity is a combination of faith, reason and will which needs the sacraments to continually reinforce it with Grace.

Being swept up by enthusiasm, however sincerely is no substitute for the stability of orthodox belief and practice.

You are casting a very wide net when you refer to "Evangelical Protestants."I can only infer that you are alluding to, in a perjorative sense, the more extreme Pentecostal/Charismatic groups that fall under that umbrella.

"When a Catholic says that he has been "born again," he refers to the transformation that God’s grace accomplished in him during baptism. Evangelical Protestants typically mean something quite different when they talk about being "born again."

As a Protestant, I have no disagreement with the first sentence above. I am not at all sure what you mean in the second. We should not deign to make windows into men's souls.

If a Christian, falling away, again decides to pick up the Cross, I'm not aware of any Biblical teaching that would preclude his Re-baptism.

Glossolalia is infecting nearly all denominations. The prancing hysteria, screaming and abandon, held by the participants to be a manifestation of the Holy Spirit is surely deception of the worst kind.

Why would this Pope and his predecessor both choose to encourage the "Catholic Charismatic Renewal" movement? An organizaton that is completely at home with the notion that gibberish should be part of the worship service.

I think some people need' religion'it gives them a sense of control, they need to feel they are 'in the driving seat'.

I am' born again'I didn`t faint become hysterical or even emotional.But I was aware that something profound had happened in my Spirit.I was aware of a 'shift'in my moral and value system, I was aware of a change in my outlook on life and on people.This happened 15 yrs ago and I am still trying to understand exactly what happened.Being' born again' is a supernatural event totally from and by God it cannot be controlled or manufactured.

About His Grace:

Archbishop Cranmer takes as his inspiration the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: ‘It’s interesting,’ he observes, ‘that nowadays politicians want to talk about moral issues, and bishops want to talk politics.’ It is the fusion of the two in public life, and the necessity for a wider understanding of their complex symbiosis, which leads His Grace to write on these very sensitive issues.

Cranmer's Law:

"It hath been found by experience that no matter how decent, intelligent or thoughtful the reasoning of a conservative may be, as an argument with a liberal is advanced, the probability of being accused of ‘bigotry’, ‘hatred’ or ‘intolerance’ approaches 1 (100%).”

Follow His Grace on

The cost of His Grace's conviction:

His Grace's bottom line:

Freedom of speech must be tolerated, and everyone living in the United Kingdom must accept that they may be insulted about their own beliefs, or indeed be offended, and that is something which they must simply endure, not least because some suffer fates far worse. Comments on articles are therefore unmoderated, but do not necessarily reflect the views of Cranmer. Comments that are off-topic, gratuitously offensive, libelous, or otherwise irritating, may be summarily deleted. However, the fact that particular comments remain on any thread does not constitute their endorsement by Cranmer; it may simply be that he considers them to be intelligent and erudite contributions to religio-political discourse...or not.

The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning.Dr Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945-1961

British Conservatism's greatest:

The epithet of 'great' can be applied only to those who were defining leaders who successfully articulated and embodied the Conservatism of their age. They combined in their personal styles, priorities and policies, as Edmund Burke would say, 'a disposition to preserve' with an 'ability to improve'.

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS.(Prime Minister 1979-1990)

We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC.(Prime Minister 1957-1963)

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can).(Prime Minister 1940-1945, 1951-1955)

I am not struck so much by the diversity of testimony as by the many-sidedness of truth.Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC.(Prime Minister 1923-1924, 1924-1929, 1935-1937)

If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC.(Prime Minister 1885-1886, 1886-1892, 1895-1902)

I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few.Benjamin Disraeli KG, PC, FRS, Earl of Beaconsfield.(Prime Minister 1868, 1874-1880)

Public opinion is a compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy, and newspaper paragraphs.Sir Robert Peel, Bt.(Prime Minister 1834-1835, 1841-1846)

I consider the right of election as a public trust, granted not for the benefit of the individual, but for the public good.Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool.(Prime Minister 1812-1827)

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.The Rt Hon. William Pitt, the Younger.(Prime Minister 1783-1801, 1804-1806)